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Podcast Transcript
Swimming was one of only four sports to have appeared at every Summer Olympic Games, beginning in 1896.
The sport has been among the most popular events at the Olympic Games since its introduction. In fact, it had the second-highest viewership after Gymnastics in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
However, as simple as competitive swimming seems, perhaps no sport has seen greater improvements in performance than swimming.
Learn about competitive swimming and the advances that have improved performance in this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
A while back, I did an episode on track-and-field techniques that have broken world records, some of which are now considered rule violations. In a similar yet distinct way, swimming has undergone changes that have largely driven improvements over time.
Swimming at the Olympic level is conducted in 50-meter pools, and events range from 50 meters to 1500 meters. Most events are completed individually, but there are a few team events known as relays. These relays consist of four people and are competed over distances of 200 to 800 meters.
Swimming times are typically very close, with many races decided by hundredths of seconds, often making the difference between winning a Gold medal and finishing last place.
Over the past century, swimming times have declined markedly as swimmers’ speeds have increased.
In 1924, the World Record for the men’s 100-meter freestyle was set by Johnny Weissmuller, who also portrayed Tarzan in the movies, with a time of 59 seconds.
Today, the record is set by Pan Zhanle. In the Paris Olympics, he swam the same distance in 46.4 seconds, almost a full 13 seconds faster.
For comparison, the gold medal-winning times in the men’s 100m dash have only improved by less than one second over the same time period.
For women, there has also been a dramatic improvement in times.
In 1924, Ethel Lackie won Olympic Gold in the 100-meter freestyle, setting a record at 1 minute and 12 seconds. At the Paris Games, the gold medalist, Sarah Sjöström, won the event with a time of 52.16, nearly 20 seconds faster!
So, why is this difference so drastic?
Many people attribute it to basic human advancement, a better understanding of diet, being better rested, and more intensive training. Those certainly contribute, but those are not the only reasons.
Swimming is different from most other sports. Most other sports see changes and records set gradually, but for swimming, they tend to come in bunches.
Why is this?
This can be attributed to technological advancements, particularly shifts in swimwear materials.
The most noticeable change has been in swimsuits. Up until the 1970s, swimsuits were made of wool. A material that can add significant drag to a swimmer.
In swimming, drag refers to the resistance of the water that the swimmer is trying to pull through.
Water is roughly over 700 times denser than air and 55 times more viscous. Because of this, drag can be considered the enemy of the swimmer, as something as minimal as arm hair can add drag to the swimmer’s body, which can, in turn, reduce times.
Unfortunately, for swimmers, drag worsens as they swim faster.
Drag in swimming can be separated into three different types.
Pressure drag is the force pushing you backward in the water.
Friction drag, where the surface of the water hits the swimmer’s body.
And wave drag, which is where a wave forms in front of the swimmer’s body, forcing the swimmer to push the wave away.
If you look at modern-day swimsuits, they are noticeably not wool because wool used to add significant drag.
Modern-day technical suits are more streamlined. They are made of high-tech materials like nylon, polyester, and spandex, blended to be lightweight and water-repellent, and sewn to compress the swimmer’s body.
The suits can incorporate carbon fiber to maintain their structure, and most are coated with the same material used to protect satellites.
The suits are typically so tight that putting them on can cause the swimmer’s knuckles to bleed. It takes many women 45 minutes to put on the suits, and they typically need to recruit help from fellow swimmers.
All of this is done to help reduce drag.
Compare this with the woolen suits of the early 20th century.
These suits were more like rompers and would absorb large amounts of water. The material was also loose and would sag, adding to the drag. The material effectively added downforce on the swimmer and pulled their bodies down into the water.
Silk was eventually used for swimsuits starting in 1912. The material was better than wool because it absorbed far less water; however, the suits were see-through, so undergarments needed to be worn underneath them, which would add drag.
Early modern tech suits were introduced in the mid-20th century. Swimsuit Fabric was now made of nylon, making the suits smoother and tighter. They continued to improve, becoming what is used in competition today.
Eventually, the technology became too good.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 World Championships, the swimsuit brand Speedo introduced a suit made of nylon, Lycra, and non-textile polyurethane.
Polyurethane swimsuits were essentially full suits that covered the swimmer’s body, including the swimmer’s legs and chest.
The swimsuit worked by exposing less skin to the water while simultaneously making the swimmer more buoyant, keeping them higher in the water.
It is widely believed that, because of the swimsuits, 25 world records were broken at the 2008 Olympics and 43 at the 2009 World Championships.
The change was so drastic that the body that governs competitive swimming, today called World Aquatics but formerly known as FINA, banned any non-textile materials from swimsuits.
The goal was to level the playing field, as the suit had results comparable to doping and threatened the sport’s fairness.
Another major addition to the sport was something so common you might not have even thought about it: Goggles!
Goggles are incredibly helpful for swimmers, as they allow them to see underwater. Which means it becomes easier for the athlete to see the wall, the pool lines, and complete flip turns.
Another key addition to swimwear was swim caps.
Like tech suits, swim caps help reduce drag.
The cap essentially eliminates water hitting the head by making the swimmer “bald.” Many men actually do shave their heads bald to reduce drag.
Swim caps have also undergone technological advancements, including the use of different materials and fittings tailored to different hair types.
All of these changes have allowed competitive swimmers to perfect the art of fighting drag and going faster in the pool.
Though there were plenty of changes to swimwear, some changes in the pool itself also helped improve swimmers’ times.
According to World Aquatics rules, competitive pools must follow specific guidelines.
These include being 50 meters long and having a depth of at least two meters.
The pool walls need to be constructed to standards, and each lane must be at least 2.5 meters wide.
Olympic pools weren’t always like this.
Initially, there were no pools; swimming took place in open water until the 1908 London Games. During these games, they were moved indoors.
Early Olympic swimming was very dangerous for the athletes, with water temperatures being recorded at 55 degrees Fahrenheit or 13 degrees Celsius.
To put that into perspective, modern competition pools are kept at 77 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit or 25 to 28 degrees Celsius.
A major development was adding marked lanes, or lane lines to the pool, keeping competitors focused on the race instead of potential collisions while simultaneously blocking the waves of the other competitors.
Faster competition times were also achieved through the implementation of 10-lane pools for the 2008 Olympics.
Though this change didn’t result in as much of a drastic time drop as the swimsuits, the change did help increase the speed of the swimmers.
In the past, pools were 8 lanes, with two swimmers being placed against the wall. The change allowed for the two swimmers on the end to have a buffer lane against the wall. This helps absorb the waves of swimmers.
Olympic pools are now typically deeper than the required 2 meters, with most competitive pools being three meters.
This is because shallower pools cause the water to reflect off the bottom and hit competitors, reducing their speed. Having a deeper pool helps prevent this phenomenon, creating less drag on the swimmer.
Another major change to the pool was the addition of gutters.
Gutters are overflow channels built into the pool edge that skim surface water to reduce waves and turbulence, helping keep the water level constant and conditions fair for all swimmers.
The gutter essentially kills waves before they can start.
Another major addition was the starting block.
Starting blocks were first added in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The first starting blocks were small and narrow, essentially a straight, flat block, almost like a box placed above the pool. These, too, have developed over time.
They are now significantly larger, angled towards the pool, and have a “wedge.”
Added in the early 2000s, the wedge allows the swimmer to push off at a more efficient 90-degree angle essentially giving a race more of a track and field start.
The improvement in swimming has not all been via technology. There have also been improvements in technique.
The most notable technical change was the underwater dolphin kick. This was swimming’s equivalent of the Fosbury Flop.
The underwater dolphin kick lets swimmers move faster with less drag than surface swimming because the body stays streamlined and the undulating motion efficiently converts core power into forward propulsion.
First used at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul by American David Berkoff in the 100-meter backstroke, the technique allowed him to spend most of the race underwater, breaking the world record.
The strategy was used successfully again by Russian Denis Pankratov at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, as he spent half of his 100-meter butterfly underwater to win Olympic Gold.
Since then, World Aquatics has ruled that you can only spend 15 meters underwater. Nonetheless, the butterfly kick is a skill used by all Olympic swimmers.
The other major technical advancement for racers was the “flip turn.”
The turn works like this. The swimmer will somersault as they move into the wall. They will perform a 180-degree rotation and push off the wall into a streamlined position, allowing the swimmer to change direction seamlessly.
This technique is credited to Al Vande Weghe, who used the “flip turn” at the AAU National swim meet in the 1930s.
Vande Weghe employed the flip turn technique in 1934, two years before University of Texas Coach Tex Robertson was incorrectly credited with its invention.
The flip turn was so effective because it allows the athlete to maintain momentum going into the turn. Another benefit of the flip turn is in energy conservation.
It actually takes less energy to do the full somersault and push off the wall than it does to stop, turn your body, and then push off the wall.
Swimming seems really simple at first glance. Just propel yourself through the water.
Swimming has evolved over time, in both technique and technology, creating major differences in times between today’s champions and those of the past.